With Pierre Emile Hojbjerg now flaunting himself around fields in Hertfordshire, Saints will now be looking to get a few more out of the door to free up wages and bring in some cash to rebuild the squad, this could amount to an entire side pointing to where we have gone wrong in the past few years.
Saints could see 11 players depart this summer if they could shift everyone on the books that they see as surplus to requirements going forward, with Hojbjerg gone it is 1 down 10 to go. Given that we have already shipped out Maya Yoshida & Cedric Soares it is an astonishing total.
At the back getting Fraser Forster off the books will be difficult and it seems we have not quite reached the point where the keeper will accept a substantial drop in wages to get the security of a long term deal elsewhere, that could happen in the January window or next summer but perhaps not now.
Then comes the list of players on big money who have been out on loan and who need no introduction to the fans, Mario Lemina, Guido Carrillo, Wesley Hoedt & Mohamed Elyounoussi.
Harrison Reed is also on the list to ship out on a permanent deal and the likelihood is he will go to Fulham.
Then there is Sofiane Boufal, the man who has had more chances at Saints than most and not just on the pitch, a succession of managers have seen glimpses of his talent, but it has never turned into consistency.
So that is 7 players on the books who have played in the first team but are now out of the picture, all on decent wages and Boufal aside have not played first team football for the club in over a year, in some cases approaching two. years.
Add to this Jannik Vestergaard who the club are looking to cash in on, as it hasn't quite worked out how both parties would have wanted.
We now come to the fringe players, Josh Sims, Jake Hesketh & Sam McQueen to make it a grand total of 11, again all looked to have a chance at making it at St Mary's, bu that seems to have passed now and they complete our full team of those who have played first team football, but are now surplus to requirements.
In terms of transfer fees paid, we have paid something in the region of £115 million for the 7 of first 8 named players and that has been a big problem in bringing new blood in, not just the transfer fee's but the wages, for the same 7, at a conservative guess we are having to pay £350,000 a week in wages or around £18 million a year not including bonus's etc, yes some of that is being covered for those out on loan, but again I would say at best 60% of it, so we are paying around £10 million a year for our players to play elsewhere, we can't sell them because they aren't willing to give up there big salaries here for far less elsewhere.
But now some of them are approaching the final year of their contracts and others the final two, it gives us room to negotiate, we know we have to take a big loss on the transfers, but we are at the stage where we need to cut our losses in order to move on, given this big handicap over the last three years it is a minor miracle we have been able to stay in the Premier League.
So we know we won't get rid of all 11, but if we can shift 5 for around £40-50 million that will give us the funds to bring in a couple of decent new signings, but more to the point free up wages, 5 going would reduce the wage bill by around £250k a week and £13 million a year is big bucks.
Saints will also look to perhaps move on the odd youngster or two, Harry Lewis in goal, Alfie Jones & Tyreke Johnson to name 3, who have limited first team experience for Saints and all around the 22 mark, who have not really shown they have what it takes for the Premier League but will be capable of careers in the Championship or League One.
So this is the task that Saints have in the summer sales, they have to shift more than an entire team who contributed little last year, indeed we could put out 11 who did not play at all.
This has been a big burden on us, but it is starting to ease and if not this summer, then by next we should be able to have shifted the lot and once again he the resources to move forward.